We’re talking old old. Back in 89 I went to a McDs in Sunnyside Queens when the registers went out. Such was the skill of the staff that even when the mgr told the staff to round to the nearest zero and forgo sales tax, he still had to go across the street to Radio Shack and buy ten calculators for his staff. So the lack of register skill goes back aways.
Around that time (’89 or ‘90 ), I was driving through Kingston Arizona and stopped at a Taco Bell for a late night snack.
I paid with a $20... and they didn’t have enough change. After the cashier and the manager had some discussion and went through their purses to see if they could make change, the manager took my $20 and went to the neighboring establishments in search of smaller bills. After ten minutes, I dug through all my pockets, my glove compartment etc, and found enough money to pay the exact amount.
But then the cashier said that there was no way to re-do the transaction; She couldn’t just take the right amount and give me $20.00 back. She actually thought I was trying to cheat them out of the food and the money.
After about 25 minutes the manager came back with smaller bills, made change, and I was finally able to go on my merry way. Of course my food was cold by then.
I was traveling through there several times a month in those days... guess where I never stopped again?